Last night I gave a presentation about how I created iHearteSports.com using the Lean Startup Methodology. I was only allocated 5 minutes so I had to talk fast!
Lean Startup methodology was created by a guy names Eric Reis. His theory builds upon the programming methodology of 'Agile'; Lean is to business what Agile is to programming.
Agile development is all about cycles, or iterations; make a small change, push that change to your site; make another small change, and on and on it goes. Do tiny things just do a LOT of them. Agile is basically chunking your work but each chunk should be, essentially, a finished product.
Lean Methodology
Lean methodology is this Agile system placed into a business framework. Traditionally, business have huge lead-in time before they launch or open for business. They have business plans, finacials, projections, marketing materials, press releases, and websites that have to be pixel perfect before they are opened to the public. Their needs to be alpha releases and beta testers and, oh, did I mention the NDA's you need to sign just to hear what my business does? Lean methodology puts all the traditional business crap right where it belongs; in the trash!
Lean is all about the MVP. What is the Minimum Viable Product that I can launch with? What is the absolute minimum I can do to 'go live' with my site? We don't do this because we are lazy, we do this because we want to get to the data as fast as possible.
Richard Feynman said that science relies on experimentation. If your hypothesis isn't supported by your experimentation then your hypotheses is wrong. Period. Full stop. Lean Methodology wants to get to that experimentation phase as soon as possible. Why spend 6 months building and nurturing a project based on the hypotheses that people will actually want/need/buy/use something just to find out after thousands of dollars and months of work that your theory was flawed? This is silly. Building an MVP product gets you to the data, fast! Be willing to fail fast because in business, like science, failing just means it's time for another hypotheses.
Build Measure Learn
iHearteSports started with the hypotheses that people wanted to buy eSports related products. To test that assumption I followed the simple cycle of Build, Measure, Lean. My MVP was 4 stickers. So I Built (made) 4 stickers. I then sold those stickers and Measured the success of those sales. Based on the data of sales I Learned that, yes, people want eSports related products. In just 5 weeks and a few hundred dollars I proved my original hypotheses enough to encourage me to continue developing new products and expanding beyond just selling stickers.
By using an MVP (stickers) and the Build, Measure, Lean cycle I saved myself a huge amount of time, energy and money.
In the video I go into more detail of our MVP and how we have expanded from 4 stickers to 40 and, soon, into a vast array of eSports related products all using the MVP and Build Measure Learn cycle.
Hope you dig it!
GG,
Jason follow me @JasonTugman
Last edit: 2012-05-24 01:29:17
gentle lover of esports - Product Manager for http://iHearteSports.com
Haha, I believe that this was the methodology used in France by a certain Mr. Breton to save France Telecom. It also led to many employees diving down the depths of depression and some of them suiciding.
It could be unrelated, but it's the first thing that popped to my mind
Le long pour l'un pour l'autre est court (le mot-à-mot du mot "amour").
mOnion United States. May 24 2012 01:35. Posts 4926
this is pretty interesting stuff, unfortunately I can see this type of business startup working much better in programming than it would in a typical entrepreneurial venture since there are generally much larger capital investments. that's why the large startup times are needed, because you can't just invest millions of dollars on an idea without crunching a shitton of number. so basically the 1k you set aside for buying stickers is less of a real business, more of a hobby that makes money, for now!
that being said, very excited with what you're doing, hope it works out!
edit: you might actually want to hybrid, and do the small startup thing for now, and later when you want to expand and do mice, keyboards, w/e, then go to a lender and say "hey look at this thing, its already working, gimme some money and we'll make it very work". just a thought. at that point a legitimate business plan would be necessary though.
Last edit: 2012-05-24 01:37:08
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Torte de Lini Canada. May 24 2012 01:49. Posts 27040
Awesome post! I really enjoy reading how you used and continue to use these concepts!
Sc2 Caster for Playhem, AGL, SPGL, ESEA & DC LAN | Host of Sc2 Up & Coming | The Godfather of Team LXG | Youtube.com/NanMan | Twitch.tv/TheRealNanMan | Twitter.com/TheRealNanMan | Twitter.com/Sc2UPandComing
felisconcolori United States. May 24 2012 04:57. Posts 2526
Would this be in any way related to Lean Six Sigma?
Just wondering. It seems like a pretty basic, common sense way to start a business without a lot of capital - assuming one doesn't overemphasize any part of the cycle. For example, don't think so much that you can't actually develop your MVP. Don't measure so much that the avalanche of data prevents you from learning the important parts. And, of course, don't try to build more than you sustain too quickly.
I am familiar with government operations, which very quickly can get stuck measuring everything to death, continuously trying for perfection on everything the first time every time and doing everything at the same time, and ballooning out of all proportion to the actual need.
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@OrD_SC2 we don't really do event specific stuff right now but PM me with what you are doing and I'll see if we can't help you out somehow.
@Dahkar That video is awesome!
@felisconcolori yep, exactly. Sigma Six, as you know, is a thing unto itself. Lean Sigma is based on the ideas of Lean Methodology. Totally agree about the avalanche. One bit I left out is that as you build, and as you measure you have clear goals of what you are going to build and what you are going to measure. Otherwise, yes, you end up with a government program
The ideas of Lean have been around for a long time but Eric was just the guy who formalized a lot of the thinking into a book and has really championed the ideas with the startup community -- which is a prime candidate for Lean as we often have little to no money as we bootstrap pre-investors.
gentle lover of esports - Product Manager for http://iHearteSports.com
if you're purely into just esports and such, the IPL event at las vegas viewers actually had more from League of Legends. since you mentioned the 3million unique viewers i had to laugh a bit if u truly believe that is purely starcraft
otherwise congrats to putting in the effort with a simple idea and for starting so quickly, with very minimum on expenses as well. a site for 200$? Fucking steal lol
i dont know why you are going into keyboards and mic and such though. there are many companies already that do that, unless you'll just be working for them, in which case best of luck.
But id probably do something like.. tshirts. Like at MLG anahiem, make a t shirt for that event, or IPL 5 etc, since you already have teams that you're working with, i would rather have a cheap tshirt .. over a sticker. (just saying) cheap is important because barely anyone is gonna spend over 20$ on a tshirt, even if its one they really like.
Last edit: 2012-05-24 14:15:55
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Jinsho United Kingdom. May 24 2012 17:58. Posts 3023
@HeavOnEarth Yes, the numbers were LoL and SC2 however it was not worth explaining to a crowd that really has no clue - or care - about the RTS/Moba scene.
We will be working with existing manufacturers
gentle lover of esports - Product Manager for http://iHearteSports.com
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HeavOnEarth United States. May 24 2012 14:15. Posts 6627
